Diocletianic Persecution

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The main altar at St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa. Contained within the altar is a box containing the alleged remains of Cessianus, a young boy who was martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution.
The main altar at St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa. Contained within the altar is a box containing the alleged remains of Cessianus, a young boy who was martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution.

The Diocletianic Persecution was the last, and most severe, episode of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. It took place under the Emperor Diocletian, and lasted eight years.[1] It peaked in 303. Manichaeans were also targeted by the Roman authorities in this period.

Contents

[edit] Failed haruspicy

At the conclusion of the Persian wars in 299, co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius returned to Syrian Antioch from the front lines in Mesopotamia. The Christian rhetor Lactantius records that, at Antioch some time in 299, the emperors were engaged in sacrifice and divination in an attempt to predict the future. The haruspices were unable to read the sacrificed animals, and failed to do so after repeated trials. The master haruspex eventually declared that this failure was the result of interruptions in the process caused by profane men: certain Christians in the imperial household were seen to have made the sign of the cross in an attempt to create a defense against the demons called into service in the pagan ceremonies. The emperors, angry at this turn of events, declared that all members of the court need perform their own sacrifice. Following this, they sent letters to the military command, requiring the entire army to either perform the required sacrifices or else face discharge.[2]

The latter part of Lactantius' account is consonant with an event that Eusebius regarded as the beginning of the persecution, an event where commanders were told to give their troops the choice of sacrifice or loss of rank. These terms were strong—a soldier would lose his career in the military, his state pension and his personal savings—but not fatal. According to Eusebius, the purge was broadly successful, but Eusebius is confused about the technicalities of the event and his characterization of the overall size of the apostasy is ambiguous.[3] Eusebius, Lactantius and Constantine each state that Galerius was the prime impetus for the purge, and its prime beneficiary.[4] Diocletian was conservative in matters of religion, a man faithful to the traditional Roman pantheon,[5] but he still had tendencies towards religious tolerance. Galerius, however, was a devoted and passionate pagan, and eager for political advantage; according to Christian sources, he was consistently the main advocate of such persecution.[6] Newly prestigious and influential after his victories in the Persian war and perhaps still smarting over his earlier public humiliation at Antioch, Galerius had begun to express discontent with the government's current policies towards the Christian faith.[7]

[edit] Manichean persecution

Affairs quieted after the initial persecution. Diocletian remained in Antioch for the following three years. He visited Egypt once, over the winter of 301–2, where he began the grain dole in Alexandria.[8] In Egypt, some Manicheans, followers of the prophet Mani, were decried in the presence of the proconsul of Africa. On March 31, 302 in a rescript from Alexandria, Diocletian, after consultation with the proconsul, ordered that the leading followers of Mani, be burnt alive along with their scriptures. Low-status Manicheans were to be executed by the blade; high-status Manicheans were to be sent to work in the quarries of Proconnesus (Marmara Island, Turkey) or the mines of Phaeno. All Manichean property was to be seized and deposited in the imperial treasury.[9] Diocletian believed quite firmly in these policies, and his religious passion motivated him to use violent and hateful language in their expression. He found much to be offended by in Manichean religion: its novelty, its alien origins, the way it corrupted the morals of the Roman race, and its inherent opposition to long-standing religious traditions. He believed that their kind deserved extermination.[10]

[edit] Origins of the Great Persecution

Diocletian was in Antioch in the autumn of 302, when the next instance of persecution occurred. The deacon Romanus had come to the city from Caesarea Maritima, in Syria Palaestina (near modern Caesarea, Israel). Romanus saw many in the city visiting the pagan temples, and was angered. In protest, he visited a court while preliminary sacrifices were taking place and interrupted the ceremonies, decrying the act in a loud voice. He was arrested and sentenced to be set aflame, but Diocletian overruled the decision, and decided that Romanus should have his tongue removed instead. This being done, Romanus was sent to prison, where he would be executed on November 17, 303. The arrogance of this Christian displeased Diocletian, and he left the city and made for Nicomedia for the winter, accompanied by Galerius.[11]

According to Lactantius, Diocletian and Galerius entered into an argument over what imperial policy towards Christians should be while wintering at Nicomedia in 302. Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, while Galerius pushed for their extermination. The two men sought to resolve their dispute by sending a messenger to consult the oracle of Apollo at Didyma.[12] Upon returning, the messenger told the court that "the just on earth"[13] hindered Apollo's ability to speak. These "just", Diocletian was informed by members of the court, could only refer to the Christians of the empire. At the behest of his court, Diocletian finally acceded to demands for universal persecution.[14]

It is uncertain exactly how much support there was for policies of persecution within the aristocracy. There were many individuals willing to be martyrs, and many provincials willing to ignore any persecutionary edicts from the emperors. Even the emperor Constantius was known to have disapproved of the policy. The lower classes demonstrated little of the same enthusiastic support they had for earlier persecutions. The long-established Christian Church had perhaps simply become another accepted part of their lives, no longer as alien as it had once been.[15] But, within the highest ranks of the imperial administration, there remained men like Porphyry and Sossianus Hierocles, men who would publish anti-Christian tracts, men who would happily enforce any policies that came down to them.[16]

[edit] Great Persecution

On February 23, 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly-built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures set to flame, and the treasures of the church collected as treasure.[17] The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published.[18] This ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship across the Empire, and prohibited Christians from assembling for worship.[19] Before the end of February, a fire destroyed part of the imperial palace. Galerius convinced Diocletian that the culprits were Christians conspirators who had plotted with palace eunuchs. An investigation into the act was commissioned, but no responsible party was found. Executions followed. The palace eunuchs Dorotheus and Gorgonius were eliminated. One individual, a Peter, was stripped, raised high, and scourged. Salt and vinegar were poured in his wounds, and Peter was set to die over an open flame. The executions continued until at least April 24, 303, when six individuals, including the bishop Anthimus, were decapitated. A second fire appeared sixteen days after the first. Galerius left the city, declaring it unsafe. Diocletian would soon follow.[20]

The first edict was the sole enforceable edict in the West. In the East, progressively harsher legislation was devised. In the spring or summer of 303, following a series of rebellions in Melitene (Malatya, Turkey) and Syria, a new edict was devised, ordering the arrest of all bishops and priests. In anticipation of the upcoming twentieth anniversary of his reign on November 20, Diocletian declared a general amnesty. Any imprisoned individual could be released, so long as they agreed to make a sacrifice to the gods. This was unacceptable to many of the imprisoned, but wardens managed to obtain at least nominal compliance with the rule in order to more quickly empty their overcrowded prisons.[21] In spring 304, a further edict ordered all persons, men, women, and children, to gather in a public space and offer a collective sacrifice.[22] This last edict was not enforced at all in the domains of Maximian and Constantius. In the East, it remained applicable until the issue of the Edict of Milan by Constantine I and Licinius in 313.[23]

Due to the authority structure of the Roman tetrarchy, the persecution was not general throughout the empire. In the eastern part of the empire, Diocletian and Galerius enforced the persecution, as did Maximian in Italy. However, Constantius Chlorus continued to extend toleration to the Christians in his domain, and so the Christians of Gaul and Britain remained relatively unmolested.

According to one estimate, a total of 3,000–3,500 Christians were killed in the persecution,[24] while many others suffered torture or imprisonment.[25] Among the recorded martyrs, there are Pope Marcellinus, Philomena, Sebastian, Afra, Lucy, Erasmus of Formiae, Florian, George, Agnes, Cessianus, Saint Dujam (bishop of Salona), [26] Abundius of Umbria and others ending with Peter of Alexandria (311).

[edit] Official end

The persecution was officially ended in 311 by Galerius, in connection with Constantine and Licinius (Diocletian had abdicated and retired, according to the tetrarchy system), through an Edict of Tolerance where he admitted to have failed in eradicating Christianity, adding that "for this our indulgence, they ought to pray to their God for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live securely in their homes".[27] [28]

In 313, Constantine and Licinius reaffirmed religious tolerance with the Edict of Milan.[27]

We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is made that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion. — Constantine I and Licinius, Edict of Milan.

[edit] Legacy

Diocletian's empire-wide persecution has been considered to be one of the bloodiest and most ruthless persecutions in the history of the Roman Empire. The persecution made such an impression on Christians that the Alexandrian church used the start of Diocletian's reign (284) as the epoch for their Era of Martyrs. Another effect of the persecution was the flight of Marinus the Dalmatian to Mount Titano, forming what eventually became the Republic of San Marino. It was also the last time that Christians were systematically persecuted in the Roman Empire, as after Diocletian's retirement most emperors would be Christian, with the notable exception of the pagan Julian the Apostate who made but a small amount of Christian Martryrs in contrast to Diocletian (i.e. see John and Paul).

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Odahl, 67–69; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 22–25.
  2. ^ Lactantius, 10.1–5; Barnes, "Sossianus Hierocles", 245; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 18–19; Helgeland, 159; Liebeschuetz, 246–8; Odahl, 65. Helgeland (1974, 159) places the event in 301. Barnes (1976, 245) first argues for a date of 302 or "not long before"; but later (1982, 18–19) accepts a date of 299.
  3. ^ Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 8.4.2–3; Barnes, "Sossianus Hierocles", 246; Helgeland, 159.
  4. ^ Lactantius, DMP 10.6, 31.1; Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 8, app. 1, 3; Constantine, Oratio ad Coetum Sanctum 22; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 19, 294. Barnes (1982, 19) argues for a Diocletian with the potential for tolerance.
  5. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 20; Corcoran, 51; Odahl, 54–56, 62.
  6. ^ Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G. (1979). "The Diocletianic revival", Continuity and Change in Roman Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 235–252, pp. 246–248. ISBN 0-19-814822-4. 
  7. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 19.
  8. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 19.
  9. ^ Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 660; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 20.
  10. ^ Lactantius, DMP 33.1; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 20.
  11. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 20–21.
  12. ^ Lactantius, 10.6–11; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 21; Odahl, 67. Lactantius' account is generally assumed to be an "imaginative reconstruction", (Barnes 1981, 297) a fiction that nonetheless conveys political truths (Mackay 1999, 200). That the conversation between the two emperors was purportedly "private" is not necessarily damning: "Conversations between important men...have a way of becoming public knowledge." (Potter 2004, 338).
  13. ^ Eusebius, Vita Constantini 2.50.
  14. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 21; Elliott, Christianity of Constantine, 35–36; Liebeschuetz, 235–252, 246–248; Odahl, 67; Potter, 338.
  15. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 21.
  16. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 21–22.
  17. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 22; Odahl, 67–69; Potter, 337.
  18. ^ Bleckmann.
  19. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 22; Liebeschuetz, 249–50.
  20. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 24.
  21. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 24.
  22. ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 24; Liebeschuetz, 249–50.
  23. ^ Liebeschuetz, 250–51.
  24. ^ W. H. C. Frend, as cited by Liebeschuetz, pp. 251–252.
  25. ^ Liebeschuetz, p. 252.
  26. ^ SVETI DUJAM, solinski biskup i mučenik († 304) (2008). Retrieved on 2008-02-24.
  27. ^ a b Medieval Sourcebook
  28. ^ HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH* (2008). Retrieved on 2008-02-24.

[edit] References

  • Barnes, Timothy D. "Sossianus Hierocles and the Antecedents of the "Great Persecution"." The Journal of Roman Studies 80 (1976): 239–52.
  • Barnes, Timothy D. Constantine and Eusebius. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. ISBN 978-0674165311
  • Bleckmann, Bruno. "Diocletianus." In Brill's New Pauly, Volume 4, edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmut Schneider, 429–38. Leiden: Brill, 2002. ISBN 9004122591
  • Elliott, T. G. The Christianity of Constantine the Great. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press, 1996. ISBN 0-940866-59-5
  • Helgeland, John. "Christians and the Roman Army A.D. 173-337." Church History 43:2 (1974): 149–163, 200.
  • Jones, A.H.M. The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1986.
  • Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G. Continuity and Change in Roman Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-19-814822-4.
  • Mackay, Christopher S. "Lactantius and the Succession to Diocletian." Classical Philology 94:2 (1999): 198–209.
  • Odahl, Charles Matson. Constantine and the Christian Empire. New York: Routledge, 2004. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-17485-6 Paperback ISBN 0-415-38655-1
  • Potter, David S. The Roman Empire at Bay: AD 180–395. New York: Routledge, 2005. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-10057-7 Paperback ISBN 0-415-10058-5

[edit] External links

A Chronological Chart of the Persecution with primary sources hyperlinked